This description relates to enterprise application performance monitors.
Applications of an enterprise (“enterprise applications”) are typically implemented as multi-tier applications distributed over numerous computing systems. An example of a multi-tier application is a three-tier application having a data tier, a middle tier, and a client tier. The data tier can be comprised of one or more databases, which together contain the data relevant to the application. The middle tier acts as an intermediary between data in the data tier and the application's clients, managing interactions between application clients and application data. The middle tier controls and processes business logic, including how clients access data, how the application processes data, and how content is presented to clients. The client tier provides the application's user interface (e.g., a browser-based graphical user interface for a thin client application program or a thick client application program). Users communicate with the enterprise application through the user interface. The client tier interacts with the middle tier to make requests and to retrieve data from the data tier. The client tier then displays to the user the data retrieved from the middle tier. Conventionally, performance of an enterprise application is measured on an end-to-end round-trip basis from the start of a request by a user (e.g., as indicated by a depressing of a key or a button) to the time when the user can use the data supplied in response to the request.